1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to inkjet-receptive coating compositions, and, more particularly, to coating compositions of a cationic terpolymer which provide advantageous inkjet-receptive coatings on a substrate.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The image quality of inkjet printing has begun to approach that of silver halide photography and these advances have carried inkjet printing to the point where a further advance now depends on the quality of inkjet papers. An inkjet printed image on plain paper is generally inferior to a silver halide image on photographic paper, but it becomes difficult to distinguish between the two when the inkjet printing is performed on high-grade photo paper.
Currently, three types of inkjet paper are used: cast-coated, swelling and microporous. Cast-coated paper provides limited image quality as its base paper absorbs ink. Swelling and microporous papers use a polyethylene (PE) coated base paper that makes the base impermeable to ink. The PE coated bases, however, do not absorb ink; hence the image quality of swelling and microporous papers depends chiefly on the mechanisms of the image receiving layers. Swelling papers consist mainly of water-soluble polymers, offering high optical density, but slow drying, disadvantageous curl and low water resistance. Printing on plastic or fabric presents even more challenges particularly with respect to achieving fast ink drying times.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide new and improved inkjet-receptive coatings, and compositions therefor, and, particularly, to such compositions which will provide glossy inkjet-receptive coatings on a substrate.
Another object of the invention is to provide a compatible coating composition of a cationic terpolymer which can be coated onto a substrate such as paper, polyester or vinyl, to receive a glossy inkjet image.
Still another object herein is to provide an inkjet-printed image which dries rapidly, has good color density, low color density loss, and is water-resistant.